Me when The Race War Starts and I Gotta Kill X

Submission 6,619

Part of a series on Wesley Snipes Crying. [View Related Entries]

About

Me when The Race War Starts and I Gotta Kill X, also written Me when The Race War Starts and I Gotta Shoot X, is a phrasal template meme that humorously lists a white celebrity that people of color would be torn over killing when an imagined "race war" begins. The phrase is most commonly captioned over an image of Black actor Wesley Snipes crying and pointing a gun at the meme's viewer, also known as the meme format Wesley Snipes Crying, which is originally taken from the 1991 movie New Jack City. The phrase is also used to caption Jesse Pointing a Gun from Breaking Bad. It was first used on Twitter in 2017 but its most viral usage occurred when skater Tony Hawk replied to a tweet that referenced him in 2018.

Origin

On February 1st, 2017, Twitter^[1] user ahleeyou (since suspended) tweeted, "Me when the race war starts and I gotta kill Michael Cera," captioning the image macro of Wesley Snipes crying from the 1991 movie New Jack City. Although the tweet has since been deleted, on February 22nd, 2017, Redditor MGLLN posted a screenshot of it to /r/BlackPeopleTwitter,^[1] gaining roughly 6,100 upvotes in six years. By that time, the original tweet had amassed roughly 2,300 likes (shown below).

Spread

Following Twitter user ahleeyou's tweet, multiple iterations of the same format appeared on Twitter. For instance, on October 25th, 2017, Twitter^[2] user carolineflocka tweeted, "me when the race war starts and i have to kill paramore," gaining 35 likes in five years (shown below, left). On October 25th, 2018, Twitter^[3] user silenthooper tweeted, "when the race war is happening and I gotta kill tony hawk," using the same Wesley Snipes image macro (since deleted). In only two days, the tweet received roughly 21,100 likes. On October 30th, 2022, Tony Hawk replied to silenthooper's tweet on Twitter,^[4] writing, "I appreciate the hesitation though." The reply received roughly 83,500 likes in four years (shown below, right).

Continuing into the 2020s, the snowclone gained usage across Twitter and other social media platforms. For instance, on August 17th, 2019, iFunnyer^[5] Dakidnextdoor_2017 used the GIF of Jesse from Breaking Bad pointing a gun, captioning it, "Me when the race war starts and i have to shoot my own poop," gaining 11 smiles in three years (shown below, left). On November 20th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user YourBudTevin inserted YouTuber Cr1TiKaL in the format, gaining roughly 46,300 likes in one day (shown below, right).